Category: Divy

Did you experience the 10th annual Wright Bike Ride in Oak Park, IL this year? Yeah, neither did I, I must admit the last time I was on a bike was years ago, not because I am lazy but simply because there is no room to ride one’s bike safely in the streets. Nor does it look like there is any incentive for Oak Park, IL to adjust the roads within the village to accommodate that desire any time soon. Hell, if I can’t walk down the sidewalk without stepping in dog shit I sure as hell am not riding my bike down Oak Park, IL’s small two-way side streets!

Plus. the fact that this ride was shut down a year because there was a lack of participants tells me that even though Oak Park, Il’s recent push into the Divy program may be all for naught. I mean 506 participants is great but it makes this activity such a niche that developing bike lanes or disrupting the traffic in Oak Park, Il for part of the weekend is almost hard to validate (Farmer, 2016).

With help from the non-profit Oak Park cycling club, it remains a part of the community’s stale of yearly events but for how long? When you have negative parking issues brought on by various reasons, rude dog walkers, construction sites started without any common sense and other traffic, navigation issues that it makes this event a deadly “take-your-life-into-your-own-hands” venture.

Although I applaud the Oak Park Cycle club’s mission to improve these types of conditions and help residents get active and healthy but more need to be done to help make the area safe to bike ride for cyclists and motorists (Oak Park Cycle Club, 2016). I do not see this movement getting any bigger without cyclists from other areas outside of Oak Park, Il, nor do I see the village of Oak Park, IL taking the necessary steps to adjust traffic lanes and tearing up streets and down trees to make this a permanent avenue for transportation.

I mean Oak Park, Il is more ascetic not practical or functional, when it comes to construction and city planning, you can simply ask those residents who have to move their car every two hours so they do not get a ticket and they will agree with me. That Oak Park, IL needs to do more to alleviate the transportation issues of the village to make events like this safer and more attractive to the average person. Until that is done, I see this event as a niche novelty more than something we all desperately need to work into our lifestyles to help make us healthier and fit; not because we rather sit in front of our computer screens and troll the internet just because Oak park, IL cannot get their heads out of their asses to do what is sorely needed.

Here are some websites/articles regarding more information about the event: